Motor vehicle law column by Tim Schewe

This column is dedicated to the middle aged male driver who turned left in the intersection and completed the turn half way into my lane as I approached him and half way into the lane that he was supposed to be using. Was he being inattentive, careless or did he not know any better?

Unless you are using an intersection that allows a left turn from multiple lanes, you approach the intersection in the lane closest to the center line. Enter the intersection itself with your vehicle still positioned to the right of the center line. If it is possible, turn your vehicle in an arc with an apex to the right of the center of the intersection. Enter the first available lane for your direction of traffic, with your vehicle positioned to the right of the center line of that road before you leave the intersection.

If multiple lanes are allowed to turn left, exit from and enter into the corresponding lanes on either side of the intersection in the manner outlined already. Of course, it may not be possible to remain to the left of the center of the intersection depending on the lane that you are in. Also, while it may not be illegal to change lanes in an intersection, a defensive driver will not do so.

Without doubt, the laws that drivers fail to follow the most often must regard the speed limit. Everyone has a justification for doing so. They range from being in a hurry, which is selfish, to the limit is set too low which is either a reasonable observation or a result of failing to take all factors into consideration.

In the past, speeds were set according to engineering design standards. This was often varied by the 85th percentile rule. The logic behind this was that the limit was most likely to be followed if it was set at what the majority of drivers chose.

More recently, collision data was introduced to the equation. A higher incidence of collisions called for a reduction in the speed limit. This will likely be supplanted by tending toward speeds that will mean road users will survive and injury will be minimized if a collision does occur.

What does the future hold? Perhaps we will factor in the production of greenhouse gases. Fuel consumption rises rapidly with speed and this is directly related to what comes out of the tailpipe.

Obviously, setting a credible speed limit that drivers will accept and follow is a difficult task. However, if it is accomplished there will be a high degree of voluntary compliance and perhaps a safer driving environment.

Have you ever given any thought to how far you can see at night as you are driving along down the highway? High beam headlights seem to overpower the dark, but there are a lot of situations where we are limited to using just the low beams. I was required to calculate the safe speed using only low beam headlights at a seminar and I was surprised at the result.

Most drivers can see a dark object at night with low beam headlamps at a distance of 24 to 25 metres. The average perception/reaction time is about a second and a half. Using these facts, the result is a speed of 38 kilometres per hour. If you travel any faster, or don't pay full attention, you will collide with the object before stopping.

Dark objects such as pedestrians and deer are commonly found on the roads we travel at night. Granted, there is other light to see by in town, but out of town approaching and passing other vehicles we are hurtling along at 80 and 90 or more, and using only the low beams. This seems to be a compelling reason to be a little more careful with our speed at night to me.

Imagine that you are a firefighter, hose in hand, approaching the flames inside a burning building. You open the nozzle on your attack line and...nothing. Someone has driven over the hose outside in the street and ruptured it causing a loss of pressure. Not only are you unable to fight the fire, you are at risk now too.

This imaginary driver is guilty of two traffic offences. The obvious one is driving over an unprotected fire hose without the permission of the fire department official in command. What you may not be aware of is that you are prohibited from driving or parking within 150 meters of fire apparatus that has stopped in answer to a fire alarm. This is also the minimum mandatory following distance that you must maintain from a fire vehicle answering an alarm.

During the initial attack at a fire scene, firefighters are focused on saving life and property. They do not have the time or the manpower to guide drivers over the fire hoses nor to watch out for you as you drive through their scene. The law makes it simple for drivers in these cases, don't go there, period.

These rules are aimed at insuring the safety of emergency crews and require you to either wait until police arrive for traffic direction or to find another way around the scene of the fire or fire alarm.